US: California (News/Activism)

Last weekend Saturday Night Live presented a skit that mocked terrorists – no, not Tea Partiers, the usual butt of Hollywood’s jokes and DHS surveillance, but ISIS itself. The bit got mixed reactions – some found it in offensively bad taste, some appreciated the dark humor. This raises a serious question about comedy: is it ever acceptable to joke about terrorism?

Isis supporters have threatened Twitter employees, including co-founder Jack Dorsey specifically, with death over the social network’s practice of blocking accounts associated with the group. In an Arabic post uploaded to the image-sharing site JustPaste.it, the group told Twitter that “your virtual war on us will cause a real war on you”. It warned that Jack Dorsey and Twitter employees have “become a target for the soldiers of the Caliphate and supporters scattered among your midst!” “You started this failed war … We told you from the beginning it’s not your war, but you didn’t get it and kept closing...

Currently, 61 members of Congress have confirmed they will not attend the speech. Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) California Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) — “I am disappointed Speaker Boehner chose to irresponsibly interject politics into what has long been a strong and bipartisan relationship between the United States and Israel. As President Obama has noted, it is inappropriate for a Head of State to address Congress just two weeks ahead of their election. I agree that Congress should not be used as a prop in Israeli election campaigns,...

Someone in San Francisco is missing a leg, and the cops have it. It’s worth $7,000, and probably a lot more to the person it belongs to. It’s a prosthetic right leg, and it comes with a man’s brown shoe, in good repair. Officer Julio Bandoni found the leg last week at Eighth and Market streets. It was leaning against a tree trunk, in front of a mobile-phone store.

A homeless man fatally shot by police in the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles on Sunday had grabbed an officer’s pistol, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said Monday. Beck made the statement during a noon press conference to update the public on the department’s investigation into the deadly shooting, which was captured on video. “While on the ground and struggling with the officers, the man forcibly grabbed one of the officer’s holstered pistols, resulting in an officer-involved shooting,” Beck said. Police were responding to a robbery call at East Sixth Street and South San Pedro Street when the shooting...

OAKLAND (KPIX 5) — The minimum wage in Oakland is about to become the highest in the Bay Area. Right now it’s $9/hour, but not for long. Thanks to voter-approved Measure FF, it will rise to $12.25/hour on Monday. But as this city’s minimum wage goes up, so go food prices. Most restaurants have said they’ll have to raise prices and cut worker hours. --SNIP-- But while Higginbotham can’t wait for the $12.25 hourly wage, small business owners like Sam Hori at 475 Café worry they may not survive. “It’s scary, because if things go down, we cannot to be...

A lawsuit filed against the maker of a popular dog food has triggered concerns among California pet owners. Frank Lucido of Discovery Bay, a community in Northern California’s Eastern Contra Costa County, said his 8-year-old bulldog, Dozier, died three weeks after Lucido switched his pet’s diet to Purina’s Beneful dog food. On Feb. 5, Lucido sued Nestle Purina PetCare Company in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, alleging the dog food contains propylene glycol, which the suit said is an animal toxin used in automobile antifreeze; and mycotoxins, a group of toxins produced by fungus that occurs...

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) — A trade group has turned in enough signatures to qualify a referendum on California’s plastic bag ban law, suspending implementation of the nation’s first statewide ban until voters weigh in on the November 2016 ballot, state elections officials said Tuesday.</p>

Placentia police have responded to El Dorado High School after students found a teacher hanging in a classroom. The unidentified teacher was found dead around 8:30 a.m. Monday. Students were taken to the gymnasium, where the incident was addressed. They will be released from school early. The Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District says a crisis team is responding to the school to assist staff. Police say they are in the process of alerting the teacher's husband.

Hammond says he was ordered to attend a meeting shortly after the beating and told by CHP chiefs that there was “tremendous pressure” coming from Washington, D.C., and Gov. Jerry Brown’s office “to get this matter resolved favorably.” Hammond claims he was told, “We want you with us on this and we hope you know what you have to do.” The meaning of the statement was clear that the commissioner wanted to fire Andrew and desired that Hammond “skew the investigation in favor of the desired result regardless of the facts,” the lawsuit alleges.

US Senator Dianne Feinstein said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claim that he represents all Jews is "arrogant." Feinstein, a senior Jewish senator was referencing comments by Netanyahu before he took off for the US, and said that he does not speak for her. "He doesn’t speak for me on this," the California Democratic senator told CNN's State of the Union Sunday. "I think it’s a rather arrogant statement. I think the Jewish community is like any other community. There are different points of view. I think that arrogance does not befit, Israel, candidly." Prominent members of the US Jewish community...

Several U.S. colleges are giving financial aid directly to students who are young illegal immigrants, extending the debate about helping people in the United States illegally at the expense of Americans who are in need of similar opportunities. Such opportunities have opened up since resident Obama's 2012 executive action that deferred deportation to millions of young people brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents. However, they still are largely ineligible for state or federal student aid. ... This policy not only encourages new illegal immigration, but comes at the expense of the college dreams of young Americans," Stephen Miller,...

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- A dispute over who leaked an affidavit detailing a corruption probe involving a state senator is heading to federal court in Los Angeles after a judge's action on Friday. Ron Calderon, then a Democratic state senator from Montebello, filed a complaint in November 2013 contending that federal authorities tried to ruin his reputation by raiding his offices and leaking an FBI affidavit alleging he took money in return for promoting bills. He was later indicted and faces trial in federal court in Los Angeles beginning Aug. 11 on charges that he accepted $100,000 in bribes, lavish trips...

On February 18, an explosion and fire occurred at ExxonMobil's refinery in Torrance, California. The Torrance refinery, the third-largest refinery in Southern California, has about 20% of the region's fluid catalytic cracking capacity and is an important source of gasoline and distillate fuel oil supply for Southern California. Unplanned refinery outages can have noticeable effects on liquid fuel markets, disrupting supplies of gasoline and distillate, particularly in regions that are tightly balanced, such as the West Coast (defined as Petroleum Administration for Defense District (PADD) 5). When refineries undergo planned maintenance, they make arrangements for alternative sources of supply to...

Farmers again will get no federal river water for more than 2 million acres of cropland in the San Joaquin Valley, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced Friday. Though the announcement was no surprise, it sent ripples of anxiety through the farming industry on both the east and west sides of the Valley, which rely on water from the federal Central Valley Project. Don Peracchi, board president of the Westlands Water District’s board, mostly in west Fresno County, said: “The federal government’s Central Valley Project is broken. Some of the most vital elements of the state’s economy are being allowed...

Original Title:Immigration Officer Union Sounds Alarm Over DHS Order for Millions of Blank Work Permits, Green Cards A union that represents thousands of federal immigration officers is raising alarm after the U.S. government ordered supplies to create millions of blank work permits and green cards, touching off speculation that the Obama administration may be preparing executive action on immigration. The Associated Press reported last week that the new federal contract proposal from the Homeland Security Department would allow the government to buy enough supplies to make as many as 34 million immigrant work permits and residency cards over the next...

...“As in every movement, the more mistakes the government makes, the more chances we have to get support from the general public,” Wong said in an interview during his week-long visit to Los Angeles. He was invited here by UCLA to take part in a seminar on democracy movements. Wong, a co-founder of the student protest group Scholarism, became possibly the best-known face of the so-called umbrella protests that brought parts of Hong Kong to a standstill for nearly three months last year. For Wong, the election protests were only the latest chapter in a youth spent organizing on Hong...

First in Detroit, then in Stockton, Calif., and now in New Jersey, judges and other top officials are challenging the widespread belief that public pensions are untouchable. Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey delivered the latest blow on Tuesday, when he proposed to freeze that state’s public pension plans and move workers into new ones intended not to overwhelm future budgets or impose open-ended demands on taxpayers. The first crack came in Detroit, where a judge ruled that public pensions could, in fact, be reduced, at least in bankruptcy. Then, just a few weeks ago, an opinion by the bankruptcy...

The Dem Congressmen Boycotting Netanyahu are the Same Old Hamas SupportersPosted By Daniel Greenfield On February 26, 2015 @ 6:02 pm In The Point | 12 Comments There are a lot of stories about the Dem members of Congress boycotting Netanyahuâ€™s speech. But most of the names on the list are longtime opponents of the Jewish State.The boycott lists consists of two groups. Congressional Black Caucus members who are offended on Obamaâ€™s behalf and can smell racism anywhere.The other consists of opponents of Israel.Itâ€™s instructive to compare the list of boycotters to the 54 members of Congress who signed...

More than one month ago, Shell Oil Company sat down at the bargaining table with a negotiating team representing national leaders of the United Steelworkers International Union (USW). Shell’s goals were – and still are – to reach an agreement that respects the needs and interests of our employees and ensures the ongoing safety as well as economic health of Shell refineries and chemical plants. To that end, to date Shell has put seven offers on the negotiating table. The USW International Union leaders have rejected all seven of them. In addition, they have ordered their members to strike at...

Now that Antonio Villaraigosa has opted out of running against state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris to replace Senator Barbara Boxer in the United States Senate, Latino leaders are looking for another Latino candidate who could challenge Harris for the seat. Concerned that the Latino community’s problems would not be addressed as well by Harris as they would be by a Latino, some Latino leaders with the Legislative Latino Caucus, which is meeting in Napa at a policy retreat, opined that there are other Latino candidates who could jump in the race.

On Wednesday, the Senate of The Associated Students of the University of California, also known as ASUC, unanimously passed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and called for the ASUC to do a better job protecting Jews. The ASUC, the association of students at the University of California, Berkeley, is “the largest and most autonomous student association in the nation,” according to the organization’s website. The bill, sponsored by Senator Ori Herschmann and co-sponsored by numerous campus leaders including ASUC President Pavan Upadhyayula, the Jewish Student Union, and fellow ASUC Senators condemned the campus anti-Semitism with a 20-0 vote. The bill, which...

California has issued 110,000 drivers licenses to immigrants in the country without permission since a new law went into effect last month, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.. Applicants must pass a written exam and a behind-the-wheel test. Those who are successful are given special licenses that state that they are "not acceptable for official federal purposes," such as boarding an airplane.California became one of 10 states that allow immigrants in the country illegally to apply for special licenses on Jan. 2, when a new law, known as AB 60, took effect.

Garcetti plans to raise $10 million to help over 100,000 immigrants in the L.A. area with their applications. The city initiated a campaign to aid illegal aliens with their applications called Step Forward L.A..

California Democrats are trying to reverse a decades-old state law that bars families from getting extra welfare money for having an additional child, describing the law as "sexist" and "classist" -- despite concerns that repealing it could compound the state's money woes. The so-called "welfare queen" law was passed two decades ago during the heyday of welfare reform. At the time, Democrats were in charge of the state legislature and Republican Pete Wilson was governor. Today, Democrats are still in charge, but the base of support for the law is fading.

The building trades unions have taken exception to disparaging comments the United Steelworkers union have made during contract talks that contractor labor is neither high quality or safe. Many contractors use union-represented skilled crafts workers including electricians, plumbers, welders, iron workers and pipefitters. To resolve the simmering, and growing dispute, the leaders of the United Steelworkers union and the North America’s Building Trades Unions issued a joint statement Wednesday to clarify the scope of contractor responsibilities at the nation’s refineries and chemical plants. “We are issuing this statement to make clear that the scope of work USW is seeking in...

Companies spent more than $1 billion in California’s latest sale of carbon emissions credits, making it the largest auction since the controversial cap-and-trade program began in late 2012, state officials said Wednesday.

On February 18, an explosion and fire occurred at the ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance, California. The Torrance refinery, the third-largest refinery in southern California, has about 20% of the region's fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) capacity and is an important source of gasoline and distillate supply. Based on publicly available information, it can be estimated that Torrance produces about 117,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) of gasoline (about 15-20% of southern California's supply) and about 50,000 bbl/d of distillate and jet fuel (about 10% of southern California supply). Unplanned refinery outages can have noticeable impacts on liquid fuel markets, disrupting supplies of...

Thirty House Republicans are calling on their leadership to continue to stand firm against calls for a so-called “clean” Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill — or one free of House-passed riders blocking President Obama’s executive amnesty. In a letter dispatched Wednesday to House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) the lawmakers, led by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), argued that the House must continue to fight against Obama’s executive actions using the “power of the purse.” “American voters supported our position of opposing executive overreach during the November elections, and are solely...

Jamiel Shaw Sr., whose son, Jamiel II was murdered by illegal alien Pedro Espinoza back in 2008 criticized President Obama for his lack of concern regarding his son’s death saying, “it wasn’t like Obama didn’t know about it. He just knew for some reason — and it seems like you have to be killed by a white man or a white police [officer] for black people to care” on Wednesday’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto” on the Fox News Channel.

When on his Bloomberg TV show today it came John Heilemann's turn to comment on a clip of Hillary from a speech to a women's conference in Silicon Valley yesterday, I sincerely thought he was going to criticize Clinton's canned delivery. But to my amazement, Heilemann hailed Hillary as "much looser, much more spontaneous, much funnier" than she's been in the past. Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations! Have a look at the video and judge Hillary's delivery for yourself. View the video here.

Former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has decided not to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by liberal Democrat Barbara Boxer after 2016. With strong support among Latino voters in California, Villaraigosa was seen as a major potential threat to Attorney General Kamala Harris (D), who was the first to declare for the seat With Villaraigosa out of the running, the path is cleared for Harris–unless Condoleezza Rice or another household name enters the Senate fray.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog Sunday of undermining his efforts to prevent Iran’s nuclearization by declining to call a potentially nuclear Iran an existential threat to the State of Israel. “I agree that a nuclear Iran is extremely dangerous, and I believe that it must be prevented,” Herzog said in an interview with Washington Post correspondents William Booth and Ruth Eglash. “No Israeli leader will accept a nuclear Iran. All options for me are still on the table,” including Israeli military strikes. When they asked if he agrees with Netanyahu that a nuclear Iran would...

The proportion of Democrats who sympathize more with Israel than with Palestinians in the Mideast conflict dropped ten points this year to 48 percent, according to a new poll by Gallup. The polling company suggested a link to tensions between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu over the Iran nuclear threat. In addition, the percentage of Democrats viewing Israel favorably also dropped—by 14 points—over the past year, from 74 percent to 60, the poll found. By contrast Republican sympathy for Israel over the Palestinians rose to 83 percent, continuing a trend that has risen from the low 50s...

Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog announced Tuesday he will not be traveling to the US to appear before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference, amid growing tensions over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned speech to Congress on March 3. "Netanyahu's spin about who is going to Washington must stop," Herzog told a gathering of foreign media in Israel. "My firm position against a nuclear Iran is known by every Israeli and American, including the US president, and I know how to voice it in a sharp, clear manner - from here, not from there." Herzog added: "A...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined on Tuesday an invitation to meet with US Senate Democrats during his trip to Washington next week. "Though I greatly appreciate your kind invitation to meet with Democratic Senators, I believe that doing so at this time could compound the misperception of partisanship regarding my upcoming visit," Netanyahu wrote in a letter to Senators Richard Durbin and Dianne Feinstein obtained by Reuters. Durbin and Feinstein had invited Netanyahu to a closed-door meeting with Democratic senators in a letter on Monday.

Both Israeli and American pundits have spent the last month abusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his decision to accept an invitation to speak to a joint session of Congress next month about the Iranian nuclear threat. The White House’s effort to spin the speech as a breach of protocol and an unwarranted interference in a U.S. debate about Iran has largely succeeded in rallying a significant number of congressional Democrats to back away from support of the sanctions bill co-sponsored by Senators Mark Kirk and Bob Menendez, as well as getting some to threaten to boycott Netanyahu’s speech. But...

On Monday Senators. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., invited Netanyahu to meet in a closed-door session with Democrats during his visit. Netanyahu declined the invitation on Tuesday and expressed regret about the politically fraught tone of his trip. “I regret that the invitation to address the special joint session of Congress has been perceived by some to be political or partisan,” Netanyahu wrote. “I can assure you that my sole intention in accepting it was to voice Israel’s grave concerns about a potential nuclear agreement with Iran that could threaten the survival of my country.” Netanyahu said to...

First the book, now speech lines? During her speaking event in Silicon Valley, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seemingly snagged a campaign line from potential GOP 2016 candidate Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard. Clinton, the presumptive 2016 candidate for the Democratic Party, called on attendees at the conference to “unlock their full potential,” a line Fiorina uses. Ironically enough, Fiorina’s current Super PAC is entitled the “Unlocking Potential Project.” In fact, the mission statement for the Super PAC says the following: “Today, America suffers from self-inflicted wounds. Our nation has everything we need to lead, grow and...

A student's Jewish affiliation became the subject of a heated debate at University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) earlier this month, after the student government nearly scrapped her acceptance due to her background. Student Rachel Beyda applied to be a member of the UCLA Judicial Board in February, and presented herself as a candidate in front of the Board. However, the meeting quickly dissolved into a debate over whether her Jewish background and affiliation with Jewish life on campus is a "conflict of interest," as can be seen in the video below. The debate begins at 47:30.

U.S. Border Patrol agents are expressing frustration that a multi-million dollar park project in San Diego’s Tijuana River Valley region, including a butterfly garden, will make it harder for them to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border in that area. Among the obstacles of concern are snowflake barriers, rebar-lined irrigation systems, low-posted bollards and iron gates. The project is shaped in accordance with an environmental impact report from 2006. Much has changed since then, according to National Border Patrol Council Local 1613 spokesman Gabe Pacheco. “These obstacles are going to make securing the border more difficult and more dangerous,” Pacheco said. “Agents...

In a state where leftists use the public schools to promote their socialist ideology with impunity, imagine my surprise when a teacher handed out a flyer promoting racism. A parent of a high schooler sent me the following flyer that was handed out in one of her son’s classes at El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California. I had no idea that it was acceptable in public high schools in California to promote the idea that an entire race of people are racist simply based on the color of their skin. But there it is—in black and...

"....In Walker's defense, Tim Graham of the Media Research Center (“Exposing and Combating Liberal Media Bias”) offers this exegesis: “Walker, the son of a Protestant minister, hears the question very differently: asking if someone is a Christian is a very personal question, asking whether someone has committed themselves to Jesus in their heart. It’s like asking if he knows how often Obama prays. His reluctance to answer for someone he doesn’t know is not a ‘No.’ " Nice try, but the political context of the question was clear and it’s the one Milbank mentioned: the conviction that “Obama is a...

The Black Conservatives Fund wants to draft former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for a Senate bid in 2016, as they argue she represents the GOP’s best chance to win a Senate seat in deep-blue California. The group sent out a fundraising email to supporters Tuesday morning asking for donations to encourage the former diplomat, who now teaches at Stanford University, to run for the open seat. Rice has repeatedly said she won’t run, but the latest Field Poll on the race showed she’d be a formidable candidate if she changes her mind. It found her with 49 percent of...

The US TV broadcast of this year's Oscars ceremony on Sunday scored the event's lowest ratings in six years, averaging 36.6 million. They were down by 16% on last year's ratings, according to Nielsen figures published by Variety. First-time host Neil Patrick Harris received lukewarm reviews, while some have blamed the drop on a lack of nominations for films with mass appeal.

At least 30 people were injured, including two critically, Tuesday morning when a Metrolink commuter train collided with a tractor-trailer truck on the tracks in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles. Oxnard police Sgt. Denise Shadinger said the crash was reported at 5:44 a.m. Shadinger said the truck became fully engulfed in flames. Authorities are describing the scene as a multi-casualty incident. Details of the injuries were not immediately clear.

“‘This case demonstrates the need for vigilance and swift action to counter the false allure of violent extremism,’ U.S. Attorney Stephanie Yonekura said in a statement.” That allure will continue, however, since American authorities are determined to ignore and deny what makes it so alluring in the first place, rather than be honest about it and try to formulate realistic strategies to counter it. “Two men sentenced to 25 years in plot to attack Americans in Afghanistan,” Reuters, February 23, 2015 (thanks to James): (Reuters) – Two men convicted of seeking to join al Qaeda and training to carry out...

Irving immigration lawyer and Obama supporter, Sherin Thawer, was arrested on federal fraud charges and for forging applications of illegal immigrants. Sherin Thawer was invited to the Obama White House last year to discuss immigration reform. Dallas.com reported: An Irving immigration lawyer was arrested Friday morning on federal fraud charges for allegedly forging visa applications for illegal immigrants she represented, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Sherin Thawer, 45, was arrested by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations at her Coppell home, authorities said. She made her initial court appearance Friday and was released. The seven-count indictment,...

The long take of "Birdman" has stretched all the way to the Academy Awards, where the jazzy, surreal comedy about an actor fleeing his superhero past took Hollywood's top honor in a ceremony punctuated by passionate pleas for equality.